Class Three

South Lakes District Cross Country Trials

 in Class Four / Class Three / PE / Sport / Whole School by

What a terrific and successful afternoon was had at the district trails this week and what a muddy delight to be there!

It was ‘touch and go’ for this event to even take place on Wednesday, following torrential rain for several days in the lead up. The ‘go ahead’ was finally given on the morning and our team of 9, excited and full of confidence travelled to the challenging and muddy course at Casterton to compete.

What effort, what support, and what an achievement by everyone, who excelled to run their best, in races against at least 80 of the best district runners.

I am delighted to report that everyone finished in the top 50%, and that 6 pupils qualified for the Cumbria finals on Tuesday 17th January.

We are so very proud!

The fun that is Running Club continues each Friday until the end of March when all runners will compete at the season finale at Elleray, what a team they all are!

Cave Painting in Class 3

 in Art / Class Three / History / Whole School by

Class 3 have been finding out what it would have been like to be one of the world’s first artists, painting on the walls of caves with natural materials and only their hands to create images.

Inspired by the work of our ancient ancestors, we travelled back in time to our cave – the school hall – where we worked collaboratively to create images of hands, animals and people.

It was very different to our usual experiences in art lessons.  The large pieces of paper had been crinkled and squashed to replicate the uneven surface of a cave wall; they had been positioned vertically so that we could feel what it would have been like to try to paint on walls; and the hall was dimly lit to imitate the dim light in a cave.

Unlike our ancient predecessors, we were able to use graphite sticks, acrylic paints and pastels.

Making Cushions in Class 3

 in Class Three / Design and Technology / Whole School by

Class Three have had a wonderful time learning all about applique and cross stitch while making cushions for our D and T topic. The class showed resilience and great team work, helping each other when needed. We used running stitch, cross stitch and over sewing, along with applique for the decorations. I think you will agree they look fantastic!

Sketch Books in Class 3

 in Art / Class Three / History / Whole School by

Class 3 have been exploring cave paintings in their sketch books in our recent art lessons.

We have been re-visiting our prior learning by recapping on primary and secondary colours and we have been finding out exactly how to make brown!  Did you know that there are three formulas to make it accurately: it is not a case of just mixing as many colours as possible together!

We have been looking at all the different ways to describe and make the endless shades of brown that can be created using acrylic paints, watercolours, oil pastels and watercolours. As well as looking closely at the earthy tones made by natural materials used in ancient cave paintings found in France, Spain and Argentina that date back thousands of years.

Here we are at work in our classroom this week….

Class 3 visit Castlerigg Stone Circle

 in Class Three / History / Whole School by

What an amazing day we all enjoyed in Keswick last week, which began with a visit to Castlerigg Stone Circle in the morning.   Despite the wet, windy weather blowing across the clearing, we were able to get up close to the stones as we considered what their purpose might have been 4500 years ago.

We have several theories – it was certainly a place of very special significance – perhaps of religious importance or a place for people to gather and trade!  Other stone circles around the UK, are believed to have been burial grounds, but not Castlerigg, as no human bones have every been found in the locality.

During the afternoon, we moved indoors to enjoy three workshops with the museum staff.   We were able to handle ancient stone axes that had been found in a cave on the Pike of Stickle which were believed to have been the remains of a stone-age axe factory!  We learnt about how hunter gatherers during the neolithic period survived in ancient Britain and we also became real archaeologists searching for hidden artefacts in the earth.

See us here, learning more about life in Stone-Age Britain and how historians have been able to piece together so much information about this time long before writing was invented!

 

Design And Technology Week

 in Class Four / Class One / Class Three / Class Two / Design and Technology / Whole School by

What an amazing and busy time we had last week! The whole school took part in different Design and Technology projects. Class 1 were developing their cutting skills and exploring a range of different junk modelling materials. Class 2 were learning about fruit and vegetables, using their senses to explore them and then creating their own smoothies. Class 3 explored how to use a simple pneumatic system to make box monsters. Class 4 were learning about different ways to join fabric including different stictches, before designing and making their own soft toys. Each class enjoyed learning new skills, acquiring new knowledge and had opportunities to design, make and evaluate their work.

Class 4’s Soft Toys

Class 3’s Monster Boxes

Class 2’s Smoothies

Class 1’s Junk Modelling

Writing Instructions in Years 3 + 4

 in Class Three / English / Whole School by

Have you ever tried to follow the instructions for making a Lego model and faced all kinds of difficulties?

This week, Class 3 have been learning all about how to write clear, detailed and precise instructions so that the reader is able to follow the instructions and have a very successful outcome.  We have been talking though each stage of the process of making a jam sandwich so that the reader doesn’t make any mistakes like: butter both sides of the bread, or put a dollop of jam in the centre of each slice and not spread across the whole surface of the slice.

We have also talked about the key features of good instructions which has included using imperative verbs, adverbs and time or adverbial openers.  The instructions also need to be in chronological order.  Year 4 have extended their work to include modal verbs.  If you have any trouble understanding any of these terms – ask anyone in Class 3!

Here we are making our sandwiches – this is called ‘Talk for Writing’! it is where we rehearse our ideas with our talking partners so that we are ready to put our ideas onto paper.  Look out for our amazing written instructions coming very soon…..!

Welcome to Class 3

 in Class Three by

Here we are settling in well and doing our handwriting – look at those lovely smiles!

We are practising our joined handwriting and spotting which letters are formed in similar ways.

Exploring the work of Henri Rousseau

 in Art / Class Three by

Class 3 have been enjoying experimenting with colour, shape and pattern through the incredible work of French artist Henri Rousseau.  His work reminds us of the Amazon landscape (a link to our geography studies during this term) although the places that he painted do not actually exist.  Each of his compositions – many of which look like tropical jungles – are actually imaginary places conjured up from the studies he did of plants and animals observed in zoos and gardens in and around Paris.

We have been using a range of media, including watercolour, ink pens and pencil crayons to create our own studies and details of foliage.

We then developed our learning further by exploring Rousseau’s use of colour, line, pattern and texture in details of his inspirational work.

Scrawlers!

 in Class Four / Class Three / Design and Technology by

What can you make if you have a cup, some sellotape, felt-tip pens, a motor, a rubber, a battery and some crocodile clips? That’s exactly the question which was posed to class 4 last week! It wasn’t much to go on, but then they were given a prototype of a “Scrawler”

A Scrawler is an automatic drawing robot! A motor on top of the robot spins with an offset weight, causing it to vibrate. As it vibrates, the pens making up the “legs” of the robot wobble across the page and draw patterns as they go.

Class 4 wasted no time in taking the prototype to pieces to discover how it worked. With no further instructions, just some reverse-engineering, small teams got to work building a Scrawler of their very own!

Once we had perfected and tested our own versions, we took them apart for a further challenge. Was it possible to teach Class 3 how to make one of their own, without using our hands? That meant no pointing or touching, and no getting frustrated when somebody else was doing the wrong thing! With only 20 minutes to complete the project time was not on our side, but I think the gallery below proves our success!